Tension escalated in the old city areas as followers of the Majlis legislator gathered at the Owaisi hospital where a profusely bleeding Mr Owaisi was rushed after the attack.
Chandrayangutta Legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi is in critical condition after unidentified gunmen opened fire on him in Chandrayangutta on Saturday. Police said two other persons were also injured in the shooting, and added that the attack was said to have been master-minded by his rivals.

Tension escalated in the entire old city areas as followers of the Majlis legislator gathered in huge numbers at the Owaisi hospital in Santoshnagar, where a profusely bleeding Mr Owaisi was rushed after the attack. Police sources said Mr Owaisi was on his way to attend a programme in a jeep when a group of people opened fire and launched a sword attack on those in the jeep.

Unconfirmed reports said another Majlis legislator Balala too was injured in the incident. The two other injured persons have been shifted to a private corporate hospital in Malakpet.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has cancelled all his appointments and is rushing to Owaisi Hospital.

Mr. Akbaruddin Owaisi is the younger son of late Sultan Salauddin Owaisi, the chief architect of All India Majlis-e-Ittadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which won seven assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh in last elections. Akbaruddin Owaisiâ€™s elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi is the president of the AIMIM and he represents Hyderabad constituency in the Lok Sabha now.

I've no clue about Hyderabad's politics. But why was he attacked by 'unidentified gunmen' (sounds an awful lot like Pakistan) and why was there unrest, or lack of, thereafter.

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The Owaisis are a popular Muslim political family behind the MIM party, with their vote-bank in the old city (that green area in the map above). Their origins are aristocratic. Later on, Owaisis pretty much became a self-styled face of Hyderabad's Muslims.

No market is without competition, and there started developing rival Muslim political groups to MIM. The Muslims, the erstwhile aristrocracy, are given safeguards by the government for huge chunks of land that they collectively own under trusts such as Waqf board. That land ended up as prime land, with the areas surrounding it being developed, and with Hyderabad's international airport moving from Begumpet to south of the city, in an area called Samshabad. Such was the meteoric rise of land prices there, that every Muslim political party did everything to get into power (in local body elections), so it could help in pawning away precious land, and getting its cut. Fertile conditions for warring political factions. Today's incident is just that. A disagreement in land disputes between the Owaisis and a rival political group's members took a violent turn.

Owaisis were part of the Razakar movement, that fought against the Indian Army in Operation Polo. AIMIM is often accused by rivals of being pro-Pakistan because it has its genesis in the Razakar movement.

Owaisis were part of the Razakar movement, that fought against the Indian Army in Operation Polo. AIMIM is often accused by rivals of being pro-Pakistan because it has its genesis in the Razakar movement.

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Exactly, they were the aristocrats behind the Razakar movement. They used cut-or-convert tactics, which invited a heavy backlash after India liberated us. That backlash led to safeguards of land, and gave validity for there to be political groups that would "safeguard" the interests of Muslims.

Owaisis were part of the Razakar movement, that fought against the Indian Army in Operation Polo. AIMIM is often accused by rivals of being pro-Pakistan because it has its genesis in the Razakar movement.

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wtf?!! Seriously?!

Why do we have such trash in our country ?! They should be shipped across the border to our western neighbour

The Owaisis of the Majilis Ittehadul Muslimeen are the total Mafia dons in the Charminar and Old Hyderabad Areas.

They played a major role in the riots that was engineered by YSR to topple the Chief Minister, M Chenna Reddy, who was also from the Congress.

My battalion was deployed in the Old Hyderabad area during the riots.

Majilis Ittehadul Muslimeen, I believe means A Party of the land of Muslims. The MIM was formed by the Razakars - the nobles of the Nizam of Hyderabad after military action by Sardar Patel led to the integration of Hyderabad State with the Indian Union.

Those who are interested in the political history of Andhra Pradesh may have a look at this"

MIM was initially formed in the 1920s for the social, educational and economic upliftment of Muslims in Hyderbad. It was NOT formed by the Razakars which came much later. It was only much later that it was in the 1940s linked to Qasim Rizvi who was head of the Razakar movement. He basically used MIM as a lever to increase his basically volunteer force. This was disbanded after Hyderabad's integration with India.The leaders like Qasim Rizvi left for Pakistan and the remaining Nizam related elite including the Nizam of the shia Asaf Jah dyansty acceded to India and integrated with it.

At the same time, there were large number of nationalist muslim organisations including members of the Hyderbad Congress that wanted the Nizam to join India and give the foolish idea of being independant or joining Pakistan to save his title. The Nizam was a privileged "ally" of the British and expected them to intervene to support their ally but wise people knew it was foolish to do so. Infact, the PM of Hyderabad Laik Ali is said to have been favorably disposed to integrating with India after negotiation but the hardline faction led by Qasim Rizvi deposed him and the Nizam started following his advice ending the possibility of a peaceful settlement.

And there are many more. The main theme being, the Nizam had erred by giving a communal color to the situation when all he wanted to do was save his kingdom by joining Pakistan which had assured that no land reforms will be done unlike the Indian National Congress that was adamant on responsible government and land reforms.

The next stage were All India MIM came into being was 1957. Majlis is community, Ittehad is unity. So basically it stands for community/party for the unity of Muslims. Abdekl Wahed Owaisi was the great grandfather revived this and rewrote the constitution to make it loyal to India. There was no razakar connection with Abdel Wahid Owaisi himself, although the name MIM was loosely linked to the movement. His main aim as is usually stated is that the increasing marginalization of Muslims and discrimination against them by the government led him to create this organizations so that the Muslims could stand on their own feet instead of begging the government for favors. AS expected it started out as social service organization, but soon after under his son, Salahuddin Owaisi they moved into politics.

But it is very pertinent to note that Hyderabad, despite being a Muslim majority constituency did not elect the MIM until 1984. Before that, it had always elected an INC to power and there was no major support to MIM electorally or otherwise. So what changed.

There were no communal riots until the late 1970s, and then under Chenna Reddy this became more widespread. The rape case of Razia Bee was given a communal color. The Ganesh processions which used to be a cultural procession also became more communal with rioting and looting along the procession. And large scale riots in 1983-84 increased these feelings of insecurity. If you talk to the old city folks, it was during this time when Owaisis and MIM workers came out to protect the Muslims that has given them the political capital to win subsequent elections because the Chenna Reddy govt. at that time had not taken an impartial stand and the police had not done their job according to them.

So based on twin planks of "build your own educational institutions" and "prepare your own protection", the MIM has maintained its constituency particularly because of the strong base in the poorer sections of Hyderabad i.e. those people who suffer the most from riots. The same was repeated in the 1990s under the shadow of the Babri Masjid incident. Whenever, the support starts dwindling, a riot or a communal scare is enough to rebuild and replenish the vote banks of MIM and BJP in the old city areas which are divided 50-50% among themselves.

There is no doubt that MIM has indulged in corruption and communal politics as and when it suited it. But it has more than once unambiguous defined its loyalty to India and has recently tried to shed its communal tag as well by inducting non-Muslims into its party too. Even though I don't like MIM, it i completely false to say its pro-Pakistan. If you every follow their speeches, you will see what they think about Pakistan. The cases of Asad supporting the nuclear deal with the US and Akbarruddin's "I am Indian first" speech supporting the rights of Andhra migrants in Hyderabad are case in points where national interests were given priority rather than rable rousing politics which would have been the easier option. But it still has a long way to go in particular to shed its communal politics. It should definitely change its name to be more inclusive rather than just Muslims if it truly wants to be secular.

Its a really uphill task for people to convince to vote anyone other than MIM because of this history but eventually, either the MIM will have to moderate or be made irrelevant as other parties come through and the old city area gets more educated.

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On this particular incident, apparently the attacker used to be close to the Owaisi's initially but had a fallout more recently on some land issues. I think tarunraju in post #5 has pretty much nailed it on the head.

But the impact again, as Akbaruddin will most likely survive this, will be a surge in his popularity. No matter what the investigative outcome of the case.